Tag Archive | "Atlanta hawks"

Proud:

They hinted at making an effort to get Chris Paul and Dwight Howard despite knowing they would have to pay a fine for tampering. ESPN ran with the story and gave it lots of press. Now those two realize the Hawks are going to make a play for them without the Hawks having to illegally contact them. This can quickly turn to disappointment however if they do not actually pursue those two guys. I hope they re-sign Josh Smith and then the Lakers do a sign and trade for Al Horford.

What is Al Horford. He has the movement of a 5 (center) which is not a compliment. He has the game of a 2 with his mid range jump shots. His post up moves leave a lot to be desired, his defense is sub par and he is a sellable asset. I think Howard and Smith are more compatible. A true center with a slasher. CP (Chris Paul) is a true point guard. I think the lineup would be amazing.

Now as for my disappointment:

Perhaps we tried for Phil Jackson as coach and failed. Then there was a rumor we tried for the European coach who had won several championships. I got excited until the guy said it was not true. Then we settled for another unproven assistant coach Mike Budenholzer from a good team. Let’s see, Mike Woodsen was an assistant as was Larry Drew. Being an assistant coach on a great team does not make you qualified to be a great head coach. Two different types of temperments. The head coach has to be the enforcer. The assistant coach is “good cop”, your buddy. I was also hoping they would make a play for Bill Laimbeer of Pistons fame. He was coached a few WNBA championships. I want somebody who has shown they can lead a team to victory at some level, not somebody who was second in command.

I hope I am wrong.

Not hard to see this one coming. He comes cheap and …(crickets).
Since I do not care about the cheap part since it does not affect the salary cap, Larry Drew does nothing to help the team. He himself could only say a couple days ago that his strength was his relationship with the players. He himself essentially admitted his coaching stinks. Plus I do not think he even has a good relationship with the players.

Lets take a look at what he has done for the team

1. Nothing
2. More nothing

As I mentioned, the excuse was injuries. We need new owners, that is our only solution.

The Atlanta Hawks will be one and done again. This time it is different. That is what they will say. We’ll win round one and we’ll have a hard fought 2nd round. We’ll blame the close 2nd round loss on injuries and say that it would have been different if were at full strength and so therefore we do not need to make any changes to the team. We just need the injuries to heal and then we’ll be better.

Let’s examine the truth:

1. Why do our players always get hurt. Simply because we overplay our starters. Our starters never rest and so they get hurt. We overuse our starters and do not allow our young players to grow. So even if our veterans are not hurt, they will get tired and our young players will not have any playing time prior to the playoffs to have the confidence to step up their game. We were lucky last year when Teague filled in and was the 2nd best player.

2. We never groom our young guys. Teague only played last year by default. We if anything, talk in puplic about how our young guys are not ready or need to work harder. Perhaps Drew should praise them in public, but that will never happen. Give our young guys a long leash, not the short one they have. Lets see if Ivan Johnson plays a major role.

3. We have horrible coaching. I’m still waiting for the revolutionary offense Drew designed when he took the job. We did just light it up against the Pistons tonight. I’m also pretty sure he does not know how to make adjustments. Whenever we lose, we will simply be outcoached.

4. Ultimately, our owners stink. It all trickles down. Crappy owners make for crappy management make for crappy coaches, etc

Nonetheless, I’ll be excited in the playoffs and have that false sense of excitement at times when the Hawks look awesome and then it will all come crashing down as it always does.

Nobody hates you, please get that out of your head. I will lay out exactly what people think of you and why:

1. You are a local product, you are one of us. We love you.

2. TO (Terrell Owens) is a loser. Please do not do yourself the disservice of comparing yourself to him any way. He had some talent but he was the pure definition of a clubhouse cancer. He was confrontational to his own teammates; Jealous of his teammate’s success. He only wanted praise, he did not care about the team. He forced teammates to pick sides. Look at every place he went, he left the place in ruins. He tries to play the victim everywhere he goes after lighting the fuse. He is a menace with replaceable talent.

Why did Bennett Salvatore feel the need to review and comment specifically about only this call. Granted, it was an odd sequence but there were quite a few non calls going against Atlanta which he did not comment on. I agree it is rare to see an inadvertent whistle call but it was not clear that it was a foul. Look closely and you see both Derrick Rose and Jamal Crawford initially try to avoid contact, backing away from each other. Crawford lands, at which point Rose jumps into him. That is a no call. If Crawford had been in the air when Rose jumped into him I could see the argument but he had already landed and was stationary so at best, you could argue a no call and if anything could have been called (but never would be), it should have been a charge.

The Josh Smith we love showed up for the most part. Problem is he still does not get it. I was disappointed in his post game interview. He said the fans do not understand and that he does not care because his teammates believe in him. Does he not understand that he was not in a funk, he simply was shooting to many jumpers. He clearly needs a vocal mentor. He understood that since he was playing the 3, he needed to play like Deng but does he not realize he can do the same thing if he plays the 4? Read the full story

I think Atlanta deserves Carmelo. As I have commented in the past, Carmelo is a pure stat stuffer who is one of the most overrated players in basketball. A pouty player with a low basketball IQ. Yesterday’s game 2 vs the New York Knicks was a perfect example of everything I have been saying. The guy was scoring with 2 and 3 people covering him but when push came to shove in the last minute of the game, he was passing the ball off to Jeffries. I do not think you would ever see Kobe do that. Although lately, I think you probably would see LeBron do that since he is now 2nd fiddle to Wade. Then to top it off, he basically said he was too tired to chase West with 4 seconds left to give them a real chance to tie it up. I am not sure why West did not keep going towards his own hoop because he did not need to clear the half court line. Read the full story

As you know, I think Carmelo Anthony is one of the most overrated players in the NBA plus I think he is a drama queen. I find it laughable, that if the rumor is true that Isiah Thomas orchestrated the trade, that an owner would still rely on a person who was notorious for overpaying for players who thought they were better than they actually were. So New York gave up their whole team except for Amare Stoudamire. First off, I think this is an amazing tandem but, I think they are both second in command types. What I mean is that they are both Pippens with no Jordan, they are both Gausols with no Kobe, they are both LeBron James with no Dwyane Wade (a quick swipe at LBJ never hurts). Plus both are very childish volatile types who will quit when the going gets rough. The wildcard is Chauncey Billups who, despite his declining play, is a clutch player with a championship. Now for most smart players, I think Chauncey would serve as a mentor and a calming influence and clubhouse leader but I do not think Carmelo would defer to an older guy when Carmelo thinks so highly of himself. So when the going gets rough,I anticipate a lot of complaining and magnify that with a New York media frenzy and I think we have a recipe for disaster. Carmelo will get his money, which is his primary concern, and the New York Knicks will make the playoffs but they will not beat any of the top 3 teams in the East. They will, however, blame somebody or something else for their losing. I am not sure why New York did not just wait until the end of the season and get him for free, it does not make much sense to me but Isiah never did nor has Dolan. Read the full story

I love Zaza Pachulia. He is my favorite Hawk. He is the only guy I see standing up to other teams. J Rich is an idiot. He said he came in because he thought Pachulia fouled Howard excessively. I guess he did not care that Howard threw an elbow. Plus, Pachulia was walking away from Howard when J Richardson approached him. Neg gain, Hawks. Richardson is a starter. Pachulia is our energy guy. I think we survive.

I hate how our coaches never posture by complaining about calls. Learn from Phil Jackson, it works and he has a ring or two. We need to start complaining about how Howard takes cheap shots all the time and because he is a star, he gets away with it. Howard has a delicate psyche, and if you mess with his head, he is liable to do something stupid on the court, get frustrated, overplay, and get technicals. We need to complain about Van Gundy complaining. Some of the battles are the playoffs are done off the court, but we never play those battles and so we lose them.